Door-binding mechanism for fire doors



Oct. 26,1926. 1,604,559

' H. A. JOHNSON DOOR BINDING MECHANISM FOR FIRE DOORS y LL LJ.YV l

NEYS

Oct. 26 1926.

H. A. JOHNSON DOOR BINDING MECHANISM FOR FIRE DOORS 2 snens-sneei 2 ,lull 1111,11/` n lll/ll original Fiied sept. 27. 1924 NEY5 Illy

Patented Oct. 26, 1926.

UNITED STATES PATENToFFIcE.

HOWARD A. JOHNSON, OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE J. WIIBSON COR- PORATION, 0F NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF VIRGINIA.

DOOR-BINDING MECI-IANISM FOR FIRE DOORS.

Appleationled September 27, 1924, Serial No. 740,295. Renewed September 1, 1926.

This invention relates to fire doors and more particularly to devices for holding the margin of a fire door at certain points to the wall along which the door is arranged to move.

Fire doors are ordinarily hung' at their upper margins upon rollers and are arranged to slide along a track from open. to closed position. When in closed position the margin of the door is ordinarily arranged to overlap the wall at the-margin of the doorway it is designed to close. During a fire great differences in temperature and pressure are often developed on opposite sides of the closed lire door, tending to force the door away from the margin of the doorway. This pressure is frequently sufficient to force the margin of the door away from the wall at points at which the door is not firmly secured to the wall. Furthermore the door is liable to buckle under the high temperature developed at points which are not securely held to the wall. In either event an opening is left through which the fire may pass, thus destroying the usefulness of the door. The margin of the door at t-he front edge thereof is usually held to the wall when the door is closed by fixed binders secured to the wall and the top of t-he door is held in place by the devices which support the door. It is also common practice to provide one or more guide rollers at the base of the door and these will hold the door from being forced transversely out o f positionat this point. No means has ordinarily been provided for holding the rear edge of the door to the wall. The result has been that the rear margin of the door has been in many cases forced away from the wall by the pressure on the inner side thereof or has buckled under the heat, leaving an opening through which the lire has passed. rIhus the protective usefulness of fire doors has been to a large extent destroyed.

The principal object of the present invention is to provideI mechanism which is simple in construction, reliable in operation and relatively inexpensive to manufacture,

- by which the rear edgeof` a lire door will be securely held to the wall when the door is closed. Y

The invention will be `clearlyunderstood from the accompanying'drawings illustrating the invention in its preferred form and the following` detailed description of the constructions therein shown.

In the dra-wingsh Fig. 1 is a view in front elevation illustrating a fire door embodying the invention applied to a wallto close an opening therein.

F ig. 2 is a detail View in front elevation illustrating particularly the door binder mechanism;

Fig. 3 is a sectionall view taken substantially on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a detailed sectional view taken substantially on the line 44 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 5 is a sectional View taken substantially on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1.

In the construction illustrated in the drawing, a fire door indicated at 2 is mounted to slide horizontally along a Wall 4 of a building and when in closed position is arranged to close an opening 6 in this wall, the margins of the door when closed overlapping the margins of the doorway, as clearly shown in Fig. l of the drawing. The door is hung on its upper margin upon rollers 8 mounted upon hangers 10 secured to the door, the rollers engaging a horizontal track 12 secured to the wall 4.

The door is shown in Fig. 1 in closed position with the parts of the door-controlling mechanism in the positions which they occupy when the door has been closed by hand. The door preferably is normally counter-balanced so that it will remain in either open or closed position. The door is acted upon by a weight 14 attached to one end of a cable 16 passing over a pulley 18 mounted on the wall 4, the other end of the cable being secured to one of the hangers 10. The weight 14 thus tends to move the door to closed position; yThe weight 14 is counter-balanced by means of a weight 2() secured to one end of a cable 22 passing over a pulley 24 mounted on the wall 4. The cable 22 passes from the pulley 24 toward the forward edge ofthe door and is attached to one end of a fusiblelink 26. The link ,26 is connected by means of a short link or cable 28 to a bracket 30 attached to the forward margin of the door.

In the construction described, under normal conditions the door may be moved manually from the closed to open position or from open to closed position, and will remain in the position in which it placed. l.Vith the door in open position, when a lire occurs, however, the link 26 will be fused by the heat and the -weight lil will then act to close ie door. i

in order to bind the forward edge of the door to the wall when the door is closed, door binders 82 are mounted on the wall 4 adjacent the forward margin of the doorway and are arranged to engage the forward margin ofr the door when the door is moved into closed position. In the. door construction shown in the drawing, the door is provided with channel bars 9i/l extending along the forward and rear margins of thc doors, thus providing the door with channels at these margins. Vlhe dom` binders 32 are constructed and arranged to engage in the channel at thcforward margin of the door.

The upper ,margin of the door is held to the wall by the engagement of the rollers 8 with the track 12; ln the present construction also` a guide roller is rotatably mounted upon a shaft carried by a hanger or bracket 38 secured to the floor adjacent the lower margin of the doorway. Thisy roller not only guides the lower margin of the f door but holds the same from being forced away from the margin ofthe doorway at or adjacent. its point of engagement with the door when closed.

ln order Lto hold the rear edge or margin of the door from being forced outwardly by the pressure developed on the inner side of the door or from buckling under the heat, the door is provided with a movable door binder indicated at Ll for binding t-he rear margin of the door to the wallrEhis door binder is secured to a shaft 42 mounted in bearing blocks etal. secured within the channel bar 3 4; at the rear margin of the door. The door binder is made in the form of a hook or catch, as clearly shown in Figs. 3 Vand 5, and when in operating position is arranged to extend over an inwardly projecting portion t6 formed on a recessed plate i8 secured ina suitably shaped recess in the wall t. The shaft i2 is acted upon by a coiled spring which tends to turn the shaft in a direction to maintain the catch l0 substantially in the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. The catch is held in the inoperative position shown in this ligure when the door is open and until the last part ot the closing movement ot the door when the door is closed.

`During the last part ofthe closing movement of the door, the catch is swung into the position shown in Fig. i3 in which it will operate to hold the rear edge the door securely from being forced away from the wall. i

The mechanism for throwing the latch into operating position comprises a trip arm 52 mounted on the Shaft Ll2 at the lower end thereof and arranged to engage a platelike projection formed on the bracket 38 which carries the roller 36.

When the catch et() is held in operative position the trip arm 52 is located in substantially' the position shown in Fig. 5. During the last part of the closing movement of the door, the trip arm engages the projection 54k, and said arm and the catch Ll0 are swung into the position shown in Fig. 3, the trip arm sliding along the inner face of projection and coming to rest in the position shown i. this iigure during the final closing moyement of the door. The projection 234i, the catch 4i() and projection it,

preferably constructed and arranged so that the catch is swung into operative `position with. relation to the projection it soniewhat before the door reaches its iinal closed position. Thus the catch `will operate to hold the rear mare'in of the door to the wall even l though some obstruction prevents the door from rea-ching its lin'iiting closed position. The projections 54cand 4G may, of course, be made as long as found to be necessary or desirable for the desired operation of thebinder mechanism.

lt is highly important that a lire door shall be capable of being opened manually after it has been moved to closed position by the action of the automatic tire-control mechanism, so that there will bc no danger that any person will be trapped in a burning building by the closing of the lirel doors. In the present construction, as the door is opened the trip arm 52 is carried over 'theI plate 54; during the initial part of the ope-ning movement of the door and the coiled spring 50 then turns the shaft 42 to swing the catch i0 out of operating position. Thus the catch presents no obstruction to the* opening movement of the door.

By means of the door binder mechanism described above, the rear edge of a lire door will be securely held against buckling or being forced away from the wall during a lire. rlhe mechanism is comparatively simple in construction and inexpensive to manu facture and also may be readily installed` upon doors already in use. The fact that the binder will be thrown into operation somewhat before the door reaches its final closed position, is highly important in that it causes the door to be'securely held at its inner edge even though the final closing movement of the door is obstructed.

It is tobe understood that the invention is not limited to the particular construction and arrangement of parts'ofr the illustrated embodiment of the invention but that the inventionmay be embodied in other forms within the scope of the claims.

Having explained the nature and object ofthe invention and having specifically doorway, a sliding door` to close the doorway, a door binder movable relatively to the door into and out of binding position for binding' the rear edge of the door to the wall.

when the door is closed, and means mounted independently7 of the door and located adjacent' the rear edge of the door when the door 1s in closed position for moving the door binder into operating position.

2. In a door construction, a wall having a doorway, a sliding door to close the doorway, a door binder movable relatively to the door into and out of binding position for binding the rear edge of the door to the wall when thev door is closed, and means mounted adjacent the rear edge of the doorway for moving the door binder into operating position.

3. In a door construction, a vvall having a doorway, a sliding door to close them doorway, a movable door binder for binding the Vrear edge of the door to the Wall when the door is closed, and means located adjacent the rear edge of the door when the door is in closed position and overlapping the outer surface of the door at one margin for actuating the doorl binder.

4. In a door construction, a wall having a doorway, a sliding door to close the doorway, a movable door binder for binding the rear edge of the door to the wall when the door is closed, a guide for the door, and a support for the guide having means for actuating closed.

5. In a door constructioma wall having a doorway, a sliding dooi1 to close the doorway, door binder mechanism comprising a shaft mounted on the rear edge of the door, a movable door binder fixed to said shaft, a trip arm on said shaft, and a fixed abutment for engaging said trip arm during the latter part of the closing movement of a dooi to actuate the door binder,

6. In a door construction, a wall having a doorway, a sliding door to close the doorway, a door binder mounted on the door` and movable relatively to the door into and out of binding position for binding the rear edge of the door to the wall when the door is closed, and means mounted independently of the door and located adjacent the rear edge of the door when the door is in closed position for moving the door binder into operating position whenever the door is closed.

7. In a door construction, a wall having a doorway, a. movable door binderl for binding the rear edge of the door to the doorway, a series of movable parts for supporting and actuating the door binder, all mounted on the rear edge of the door, and means mounted independently of the door and located adjacent the rear edge of the door when the door is in closed position for engaging one of said parts to move the door binder into operating position.

Signed at Norfolk, Va., this 25th day of September, 1924.

HGWARD A. JOHNSON.

the door binder when the door is 

